De Omnibus Dubitandum Est.

The Baptism of Jesus at the Jordan is the anticipation of his baptism of blood on the Cross, and it is the symbol of the entire sacramental activity by which the Redeemer will bring about the salvation of humanity.

This is why the Patristic tradition has dedicated great interest to this Feast, which is the most ancient after Easter. "Christ is baptized and the whole world is made holy", sings today's liturgy; "he wipes out the debt of our sins; we will all be purified by water and the Holy Spirit" (Antiphon to the Benedictus, Office of Lauds).

There is a strict relationship between the Baptism of Christ and our Baptism. At the Jordan the heavens opened (cf. Lk 3: 21) to indicate that the Saviour has opened the way of salvation and we can travel it thanks to our own new birth "of water and Spirit" (Jn3: 5), accomplished in Baptism.
In it we are inserted into the Mystical Body of Christ, that is, the Church, we die and rise with him, we are clothed with…

Smiling faces? Vatican releases photos of Pope meeting US bishops over abuse crisis

Opus Dei announced on Monday that it had paid a settlement following accusations of misconduct against a priest of the society made in 2002.
Fr. C. John McCloskey was the subject of a complaint by a married woman to whom he had been giving spiritual counsel. As a result of the complaint, Opus Dei paid a reported settlement of $977,000 to the woman in 2005.
Read the full story here.
Honestly, I have lost patience.
I'm a Catholic because I believe in Jesus Christ and because I believe that His teaching is the way the world should be: focused on the dignity of each and every human individual, attuned to justice and truth, quick to forgive shortcomings and failures, but constantly focused on building a community which adheres to the standards and ideals taught by Jesus Christ. THIS IS NOT IT! If we fail to represent Christ in our societies and our communities and our Churches, we are not salt and light…

The Community of Our Lady of Walsingham, who used to be based at Abbotswick in Brentwood and more recently moved to the Shrine of Our Lady at Walsingham, have announced that they have obtained a new home.

The new house will be called the House of the Divine Will and is proposed to provide formation for novices, accompany young people discerning their vocation and support married couples and young families in the vocation they are already living, sharing with them the rich spirituality of Walsingham.

The community are still fundraising to pay off a loan from the Carmelites and also to finish renovating the house so that a suitable library and chapel can be built.

The community was entrusted with a Carmelite library and this will be available for members of the public to access.

They will continue their work in Walsingham running the Dowry House Retreat Centre which opened last year and at the Catholic National Shrine.

As one of the new forms of consecration recognised by the church, an ecc…

Canon Lawyer Dr. Ed Condon offers some complicated but vital detail regarding the Vatican trial of disgraced Cardinal Theodore McCarrick:
While recent media reports suggest that a trial of Archbishop Theodore McCarrick is underway, Vatican sources have told CNA that his case is not being handled by a full judicial process. Sources at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith have confirmed that allegations against McCarrick are being considered through an abbreviated approach called an “administrative penal process.” Ed explains that this is a much-abbreviated mechanism that leaves out many of the procedural stages of a full judicial process or trial, including the back-and-forth argumentation between prosecution and defense.

An administrative process is only used when the evidence collected during the preliminary investigation is so clear as to make a full trial unnecessary. The fact that this is the direction being taken in the McCarrick case strongly suggests that the Vatican…